오늘의 연구실을 소개합니다. HCI 연구실 여섯 번째 산책 UNIST Interactions 연구실 Ian Oakley 교수님
How do you describe your lab to visitors? My lab is in many ways a very traditional HCI lab –it combines my background in psychology and computer science with my current role as a faculty member in design. I see these as three of the foundational disciplines for HCI. I also describe the lab as “nuts and bolts” HCI lab due to our focus on some of the enduring topics in HCI such as input and interaction techniques - these harken back to the very early work in the area (e.g., Card or Engelbart). Of course we think these topics are still very much relevant today and tend to focus on then in terms of wearable technology. What is a unique feature of your lab? My department recently changed – I was in Human Factors until September this year. This really impacted the character of the work in the lab. Many of the students were very strongly trained in empirical scientific methods and I tried to play to their strengths and bring their rigor as a core feature of our research activity. Many of our papers and projects featured quite intrinsic human studies, experimental designs and analytic protocols. We focused strongly on understanding the human experience of new technologies – how they can be used and designed to reflect human capabilities and limitations. My new department is Design, so I’m busy embracing changes in the student demographic I will be recruiting. It will be an interesting challenge ahead as the lab pivots to have a more designerly orientation. How many people in the lab, and what is the mix of backgrounds and roles? We have 8 students in the lab currently, all bar one involved in a PhD of combined MSc-PhD. I’m just back from sabbatical, so don’t currently have only one intern student, but I would usually have 3-5 undergraduates as well. I get a mix of students from my departments (Human Factors and Design) as well as some from CS who are interested in interactive technology. We’re not so international at the moment (there’s one Thai PhD student), but I’ve had a number of international students in the past. What is one feature of your lab that you could not do without? It’s quite a commodity these days, but our fabrication equipment in both the lab and department – not just 3D printers, but the mills, cutters, formers. Almost all of our research projects rely on fabrication one way or another and the ability to do a lot of the work in-house is integral to getting these done quickly and exploring as many options as possible – it lets us fail often and fail fast, as well as hopefully succeed from time to time. What is the one thing you see as most important about the work you do there? We do a lot of work designing, developing and studying new interaction modalities for both established (e.g., mobile) and more often emerging device form factors such as wearables. I think this is important fundamental work as I believe in the transformative power of these devices – just as mobile smartphones have changed the world, wearable devices offer similar potential in areas such as healthcare, education, security and entertainment. However, their power is still locked behind their diminutive size and the cumbersome input techniques used to control them. Only by innovation in user-centered work that can increase the expressivity and power with which people can interact with wearables, and other emerging device form factors, will these technologies be able to fulfill their potential. We work towards that goal.  'HCI 연구실 산책'은, 한국HCI학회에서 젊은 교수님, 흥미로운 연구를 하시는 교수님을 인터뷰하는 뉴스레터입니다. 매주 새로운 연구실 산책을 통해 오늘의 연구를 확인하세요. 구독은 여기! 국내 HCI 연구실들 살펴보기는 HCI연구실디렉토리를 방문해 주세요.  이번 뉴스레터는 INITION이 후원했습니다. |
